
Qass - - 



Book 



A SERMON 


^.;.^ 


ON THE DEATH OF 


ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 


April 15th, 1865, - 



PREACHED IN THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 

Sunday Morning, April 16th, 1865, 

AND AGAIN, BY REQUEST, THE FOLLOWING WEDNESDAY EVENING, 
BY THE P4ST0R, 

0. E. DAGGETT. 



<^ANANDATGIJA, N. Y., 

N. J. MILLIKEN, PRINTEK — ONTARIO OOUNTV TIMES OFFICE. 
1865. 



A SERMON 

ON THE DEATH OF 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

April 15th, 1865, 

PREACHED IN THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 

Sunday Morning, April 16th, 1865, 

AND AGAIN, BY REQUEST, THE FOLLOWmG WEDNESDAY EVENING, 
BY THE PASTOR, 

O, E. DAGGETT. 



CANANDAiaiTA, N. Y., 

N, i. MILLIKEK, PRIKTBR— ONTARIO OOUKTY TIMES 0¥WIGZ- 
1S65. 



;:> 



,I3(^ 



Canandajgua, April 17th, 1865. 
O. E. Daggett, B. D.. 

Dear /S'lr:— The undersigned, for themselves, and 
many others, whose pleasure and satisfaction it was to listen to- 
your timely and patriotie^ discourse, the l&th inst., on the melan- 
choly events which have so appalled us in common with the whole 
American people, respectfully request a copy of that discourse for 
publication. Yours respectfully, 

L. B. GAYLORD, WM. H. LAMPORT, 

F. J, CASTLE, J. ALBERT GRANGER, 

H. N. JARVIS, GIDEON GRANGER, 

J. B. HAYES, HARVEY JEWETT, 

H.W.TAYLOR, A.G.COLEMAN, 

MERRICK MUNGER, GEO. COOK, 

J. C. FAIRCHILD, CHARLES COY. 

L. B. Gaylord, and others : 

Gentlemen : — The sermon on President Lincoln's 
death I submit to your disposal", though of course it cannot excite 
in the reading the same interest that was expressed by those who 
heard it while the theme was altogether new. As printed, I prefei: 
it should keep the form it had on Sunday morning, and hence I omit 
the allusions, on Wednesday evening, to that day as the time of the 
obsequies and the memorable 19th of April, inserting, however, 
near the close, as on the latter occasion, a paragraph inadvertently 
(Mnitted in the first hasty preparation. 

YoiLTs respectfully, 

0. K DAGGETT. 



1898 

7/- 



"^^ip/^ WASH'/-i'v')^: 



S E R M o ]sr 



*' lliai yourfaitli and hope might he in God:'—l Pet., 1, 21. 

We are one with the millions who, having partaken of 
a common joy, this day partake of a common grief. The 
nation's heart is throbbing through our hearts. The 
past week has come and gone like a wondrous dream, yet 
a momentous reality. What other ever brought such 
vicissitudes, what other will have left such ineffaceable 
memories ? No sooner had the last Lord's day passed 
with us quietly, though pleasantly stirred as by ripples 
of the wave of joy that had just rolled over the land 
with the tidings of victory from Richmond and Peters- 
burg, than Monday brought another and higher surge of 
joy from the surrender of the chief rebel army; and so 
the week beganVith the ringing of bells, and roar of 
cannon, and waving of banners, and processions, prayers, 
addresses, and every spontaneous signal of patriotic 
hilarity, fitly crowned at night with such illumination as 
never flashed through our quiet village before. Then 
yesterday, with the last day of the same week, there 
came upon us, and upon our whole land yet palpi- 
tating with its new hope and courage, a stroke of sorrow 
so sharp, so sudden, so appalling, that we were as if 
stunned. Instead of our jubilant thanksgiving, we stood 
in silent wondering sorrow. The bells that had rung 
out so merrily tolled in lament. Our beloved flags were 
draped in mourning. The journals that of late had 
flamed with announcements of victories, now bore their 
black lines of grief. " President Lincoln is shot — there is 
no hope of his recovery;" yet after these telegrams some 



«>f us would Iwpe, until there came another, " The Presi- 
dent is dead."* Similar tidings came too, though not so" 
hopeless,, of his chief adviser,, the Secretary of State, 
"before prostrate on his bed, yet stabbed at the same hour.. 
We have hardly known what to say or think. How can 
these things be, and what can come of them?' Where is the- 
divine Providence ? Wliat cloud is this that has burst 
over us ; what emissaries from hell have broken forth 
at the hour of our triumph ? Such questions we have 
asked, and neither we nor others could answer. 

All this bewilderment seemed to me a strange pre- 
paration for this Lord^s day. But then I thought, so 
much the more is this day needed, its silence, its wor- 
ship,, its meditation. Whither should we go in such 
sorrowful confusion, but to the house of prayer ? To* 
whom should we look but to G-od who is our refuge? Yet 
this day in particular is kept, in the greater part of 
Christendom, as Easter Sunday, in joyful commemoration 
of our Lord's resurrection from the grave, and I had in- 
tended, in one of our services, to occupy you with that 
topic. How mingle such sad thoughts of death, and such 
cheerful thoughts of life ? How sing the Lord's song^ 
under the shadow of bereavement that has just fallen 
over our dear country ? But, again I have said to my- 
self, we the more need this very theme of Jesus and the 
resurrection, to allay the tumuit of thought, to soothe 
the wounded spirit, to> stay our faltering trust, Avith a 
fresh assurance to be thence drawn of the solid founda- 
tion God has given us for confidence not in man but in 
Himself. So I would still keep that theme in sight, with 
a view to the effect which the apostle Peter sets forth 
as meant to be produced, by our Lord's resurrection, in 
the minds of his followers. They are thus addressed : — 
" Who by him! (Christ) do believe in God who raised 

* He was shot on Friday at 10 p.m., but died Saturday, April 15th, at 
7:22 A. Ji. The first intelligence came here in the Rochester morning paper^ 
aad the latter by telegraph, some hours later. 



liim up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your 
faith and Itope might he in God.''^ 

The result described in these last words is the very 
€onfidence we always need, and never more than under 
the shock of sudden disaster. True Christians may be 
staggered by ill tidings, but ought never to be prostra- 
ted. Their faith and hope ought to be of such a qual- 
ity, — that is, ought to have such ultimate objects and 
reasons, and grasp them so firmly, — as never to be help- 
less. This is our confidence, so far as it is in God. In 
the face of calamity, whether private or public, indi 
vidual or national, we are made to feel what that good 
is which above all things else we hope for, and what the 
ground or reason is on which we hope for it, and hence 
to ascertain our true foundation. If this be in God, it 
may be shaken but it cannot be overthrown. No events 
can utterly confound us. Our hope for our country 
ought thus to have God, his will and glory, for its object 
and security, in order to resist all vicissitudes and trials.. 
It is to me a source of satisfaction that in adapting my 
instructions and exhortations here to the various aspects 
«f our great national struggle, I have always made this 
thought prominent. When our public affairs looked 
bright, I have aimed to lead you to give God the glory^ 
and when they have seemed darkest I have urged you 
still not the less to trust and rest in him. Now that we 
have been checked midway in the joy of new exulting 
prospects by a sudden disappointment and grief that par- 
take of a personal as well as public character, what bet- 
ter counsel can I give you than to say still. As surely as 
w^e are on the Lord's side, He is on ours : '' the Lord of 
hosts is with us !" See to it that this principal design of 
Christianity be realized in you; that your faith and hope 
be in God ! 

It is not a new thing for death to enter the highest 
place in our land, — we may say the post of highest honor 
in the world, — and to choose for his victim a President 



of the United States. President Harrison died in 1841, 
a month after his inauguration, and President Taylor 
held the office but little over a year, dying in 1850. But 
not so suddenly, not so fearfully, came the destroyer then. 
It was with the slow steps and premonitions of disease. 
The nation had made itself in part ready for the issue ; 
bent its ear to listen for the tidings. For the first time 
\VG are appalled by the assassination of a President of 
the United States. A crime of pagan Rome, of Moham- 
medan Turkey, of revolutionary France, wounds, dis- 
honors, bereaves our repubhc, through its trusted,, be- 
loved Head. Nor have'^ve now, as then, the mere frus- 
tration of an experiment beginning to be tried, the cut- 
ting short of a new administration ; nor are these the 
same tranquil times for our country and our government. 
The world knows what the past four years have 
been ; how this nation has striven and bled ; how its 
government has stood for its life against a ferocious re- 
bellion, marshalling host against host in millions, on a 
hundred battle-fields, and overshadowing the insurgent 
coast with the mightiest navy of the world ; how its 
brave men have fought and fallen, and its noble women 
have wrought, and its Christian people have prayed ; 
how, though slowly and with reverses, it has year after 
year regained lost territory, fortresses, and cities, ever 
holding fast what it has once reconquered. And the 
world has noted how, after four years of such strife, the 
nation again put into the chief magistracy the man un- 
der whom it had been conducted from the beginning, — 
as high a tribute to his fidelity as human minds could 
pay or devise. It is scarcely more than a month since 
he entered on his new^ term ; yet how have blessings 
crowned it already, what territory has been mastered, 
what battles fought, what cities won, what a surrender 
received of the most formidable of the rebel chiefs and 
armies, and how has our loyal land rung with shouts of 
triumph, and leaped for joy in the prospect of rc-union 



and peace ! At such a time, for him in whom centre d 
so many hearts and hopes, to fall by a murderer's hand, 
— for the pilot who has steered the ship through such 
storms so near to the desired haven, to be struck down 
at the helm, by an assassin,^ — this is our disappointment 
and wonder and grief. No other death has so thrilled, 
or could so thrill, this nation at once with a sense of be- 
reavement and with horror. 

It is not my purpose, if now it were so soon possible 
for me, nor is this the time or place, to review formally 
the administration of our lamented President, or to set 
forth his history, or delineate fully his character. This 
will be done by many with ample time and means, and 
will be no small part of the history of his country and of 
this age. There is an increasing unanimity among the 
loyal people of the United States in a high estimate of 
his services and worth as proved by time. I have no 
doubt at all as to the judgment of posterity. On this 
occasion I shall but briefly advert to some things in his 
character and course that make his sudden death so 
memorable an affliction to us and to our nation. 

Abraham Lincoln rose to his high position from the 
utmost obscurity, by virtue of native intellectual power, 
and indomitable moral energy. He was an eminently 
wise and good man, strong in his integrity, faithful to his 
high obligations, devoted to his country's good, patient 
in his toils, true to his friends, lenient to his enemies, 
hopeful and firm in the face of disaster, magnanimous in 
the hour of triumph. Placed at the head of the govern- 
ment in the opening of our national crisis, he has been 
true to his official vows in behalf of the Union of 
these States, and in as active sympathy as his position 
allowed with suffering patriots and with the victims of 
southern oppression. It was a thing of course that 
there should be differences of honest opinion about sun- 
dry measures of his administration, and especially as to 
the conduct of the war in its different sta^^es. Never 



8 

was a magistrate set to a more difficult task than his, 
involving more delicate questions, complicated with 
more diverse, conflicting influences. Never was a public 
man more severely tried, or more fully acquitted of all sel- 
fish, ambitious, or sordid aims. I remember seeing him 
as he went through Broadway in New York, in a proces- 
sion attended and cheered by throngs of citizens, on his 
way to his first inauguration, and I remember wonder- 
ing what was before him, and imagining the responsibil- 
ity that lay upon that tall, stalwart frame. But that 
burden proved to be even greater than I feared, and 
that frame has stood up longer and more manfully un- 
der it than could have been confidently predicted of any 
iaan even more fully tried. Among all these difficulties 
of his work, amidst all inevitable differences and oppos- 
itions of interests and opinions and passions, finding the 
ship of state at once half dismantled and beaten by a 
tempest, and having both to equip and manage it, he has 
done his work bravely, so as to command wonderfully 
the confidence of this great people and the respect of the 
world. To the qualities I have named must be added, 
or we must reckon rather as their joint product, a cer- 
tain moderation of temper which is conceded by all, — 
a rare and invaluable qualification for public men in 
critical times, though not the most brilliant or imposing, 
and eminently befitting his high post at a such a season. 
Herein he resembled Washington, as in his unquestioned 
fidelity to his momentous trust. In such circumstances 
it would have been clearly impossible for any President 
at once to suit all parties ; and by reason of this very 
moderation he could not at once satisfy all factions of 
the party that had elected him. He did^not propose to 
himself any abstract theory for the conduct of his admin- 
istration, to which he would subordinate events, but 
rather this one end, to put down the rebellion and to re- 
store the Union of the States, and hence from time to 
time he adjusted himself to now emergencies with the 



9 

practical wisdom that alone deserves the name. Neither 
to the more radical nor yet to the more conservative of 
his strongest partizans did he yield himself, whether 
supinely or impulsively, and hence, at times displeasing 
each class, he at length won the more confidence from 
both, and the increasing respect of the mass of those 
whose opinions had differed most widely from his own . 
As he had to encounter conflicting judgments and par- 
tialities, so it was a thing of course that amidst the ex- 
citements of the day he should be misunderstood, misre- 
presented and reproached. It now seems hardly pos- 
sible, yet it is true, that the illustrious Washington in his 
own time was subject to the harshest aspersions upon 
his personal capacity and worth, and even within this 
generation an aged traveler, in a stage-coach on the 
Hudson river, pointed out a spot where, he said, " the 
American army in the Revolution was Avell nigh ruined 
by the pusillanimity of Mr. Washington", — that traveler 
being Aaron Burr. As I cannot doubt that Abraham 
Lincoln Avas proved by long and fiery trial to be a man 
raised up by Providence for the station he filled, so it 
must be conceded by all that he honestly aimed to shape 
his course by the indications of Providence. 
And nothing more plainly illustrates these thoughts than 
his course on the whole subject of emancipation. From 
first to last, as I have said, he proposed to himself, with 
the simplicity ot a religious vow, this one end, the restor- 
ation of the Federal government in its integrity and 
unity, even to the repossession of every post, not feeling 
himself authorized by his vows to assail any institution 
of any State for any other purpose ; but when he believ- 
ed the time had come that slavery must die in order that 
the Union might live, as a President of the Union he ad- 
dressed himself, by proclaiming the slaves free in all the 
insurgent territory, to the destruction of that which so 
virulently assailed the Union. While some might think, 
with Mr. Everett, when consulted on the subject, tliat 



10 

such a measure was constitutional but not yet expedient, 
none can deny that he employed it in perfect consis- 
tency with his avowed patriotic and constitutional aim. 
The world abroad, that cannot so well appreciate his 
love and our love of the Union, has not failed to accord 
him for this measure the highest honor, and posterity will 
surely reckon it his brightest monument. Therefore it 
is, to day, that while a loyal nation mourns for him dead 
with no common sorrow, a whole race within this nation 
yields him even a more touching tribute. I seem to see 
their millions bending reverently, their shackles broken, 
while with plaintive prayers and songs they lament him 
as their deliverer, hallowing his memory with their tears. 
Such being the personal qualities conceded to our 
President, it was the good pleasure of Providence, 
within the past few months, to crown his administration 
with such signal successes, and of late to ac- 
cumulate such victories for our arms, that the people 
at large, with all their diversities of judgment or prefer- 
ence, had come into a fuller and kindlier appreciation of 
his services and his merits than could have been possible 
through anv more limited experience. The}" had 
learned to honor him full well while yet he lived, and 
now that he is dead he has the tribute of a universal sor- 
row not from this nation only but from the friends of 
freedom in every land. Patriotism and philanthropy 
will pay homage together at his grave. 

The elements of character thus indicated, in connec- 
tion with the manner of his death and with our recent 
triumphs and joys, give to our sense of the occasion 
almost a personal quality not felt at every public loss. 
We think of the dead not merely in his official aspect, 
but in a closer relation, somewhat as of our brave men 
for whom he has mourned with us. Indeed he is him- 
self added to our " noble army of martyrs." He too has 
fallen in his country's service, though not by a soldier's 
hand but an assassin's. From his high position he has 



11 

gone higher to the rank of his country's sacrifices. To 
him belongs now the tribute which he paid to them with 
most simple touching eloquence on the field of Gettys- 
burg. Of the myriads of graves which this war has 
filled, none will be more sacred or inspiring than his. It 
remains for the people, as he then taught, to be dedica- 
ted by his example to the work for which he wrought 
and fell. 

Death ever nas a peculiar solemnity when it enters the 
high places of , the world, not only for its contrast with 
earthly dignity, but because it suggests the common 
footing on which we all stand in relation to the unseen 
world. I have not the materials, if it were proper, to 
form any estimate of Mr. Lincoln's religious views and 
feelings, farther than they maybe inferred from the mor- 
al traits already indicated, and from incidents uncertainly 
reported. It is pleasant now to remember that more 
than four years ago, on leaving his western home, not 
knowing that on his way to the Capital he was exposed 
to the same peril that has now proved fatal, he asked 
the prayers of the neighbors and friends about him. It is 
pleasant now to believe the story of his early morning 
devotions and reading of the Scriptures, and that other 
account of his avowal that after his domestic bereave- 
ment, and still more decisively at the dedication of the 
Gettysburg cemetery, he had consecrated himself to the 
Savior. We see what those things are which we most 
love to recall concerning the dead. It seems easy for us 
to believe that one who has been so faithful to such an 
earthly trust, when suddenly called to a higher than 
human tribunal, has received the testimony, " Well done, 
thou good and faithful servant !" 

We are conscious of another emotion under our na- 
tional bereavement. Besides sorrow for a faithful ser- 
vant of his country in her highest office, that country is 
thrilled with horror at the crime which bereaves her, and 
indio'iijition toward his murderer. If there be on earth 



12 

a man who rejoices in or approves of this atrocity, that 
man is himself an assassin. If in all our loyal States 
there be one who is indifferent, we must leave him to 
God's mercy, for on such a man his country and humanity 
can have none. We first thought, this is the insanity of 
fanaticism; but since two murders were attempted at the 
same hour, we must reckon it the work of bribed con- 
spirators. On either supposition, there lives the man, 
we hope already arrested and doomed, into whom 
entered the foulest of unclean spirits, and who has done 
the demoniac work of his master. A gust of malignant 
fire from the pit has swept over our high places, and 
blasted him whom the nation delighted to honor. " Ven- 
geance belongeth unto God," yet it is a righteous indig- 
nation that burns within us toward the dastardly assas- 
sin. Nor are we forbidden to say of a miscreant who 
has wrought such a crime against a nation in her peril, 
what Paul could say of one who had done him " much 
evil," — "The Lord reward him according to his works." "^^ 
The atrocity of the crime by Avhich this afiiiction is 
brought on our country must not lead us to think of 
the event out of its connection with the providence of 
God. Events are providential not merely sometimes as 
independent of human agency, but always as never 
independent of the divine control ; as alwa3^s under 
God's permission, and within the scope of his plan, and 
hence provided for in his all comprehending adminis- 
tration, so as never to frustrate his purposes, or ultimate 
ly to confound the confidence that is fixed on him. As 
no contingencies can be so sudden or so disastrous, so no 
agencies can be so violent or so malignant as to defeat or 
surprise his government of the world. The ci^imes that 
He most abhors, when not prevented, are yet overruled 
in subordination to his cause, and against their guilty 
authors. The Son of God wiis "crucified and slain by wick- 
ed hands" on a Friday, more than eighteen centuries ago 

■*= 2 Tim. 1., 14. 



13 

yet was He " delivered by tlie determinate counsel and 
foreknowledge of God." * Let not this new crime in our 
annals, wrought on the day kept as the anniversary of 
that day, seem to us as if it had not been foreseen, and 
permitted, however mysteriously, by him in wdiom we 
trust, and would not be made subservient to the very 
good it was intended to destroy. 

Some things I have noted as giving us a measure of 
rehef in the aspect of this national disaster. It is well 
that our President did not fall in Kichmond, where he 
had been so recently exposed. It might then have been 
said or thought that he was out of hi& place, incurring 
needless danger, and the coincidence would have put 
into the mouths of our enemies a taunt that we could 
not but deplore. Still more do I rejoice and thank God 
that he did not fall a few months sooner. Would that 
he might have been permitted to see the consummation 
of the train of events so gloriously begun, and to retire, 
at the end of his presidency, with the satisfaction and 
honor of happily completing the whde part that seemed 
assigned to him, himself rejoicing in union and peace 
restored, and receiving the tribute now to be rendered 
to his memory. But since this might not be, we rejoice 
that he was permitted, after all his patient toils, tO' 
ascend the mount and see the land of promise from 
which the clouds were so far hfted off to his eyes and 
ours. He lived to do the chief part of his work, and to 
be assured of its success. He lived till our arms had 
swept unresisted through the heart of the southern con- 
federacy, and recaptured nearly all the cities and fort- 
resses wrested from us by the enemy ; till our old flag 
waved again over "the birth place and the capital of the 
rebelHon, borne to that supremacy by faithful champions 
from among those whom that rebellion would have trod- 
den down forever ; till the ablest rebel leader had'^sur- 
rendered with his army; nor did he die till he could say^ 

* Acts 2., 23. 



14 

Already this day has that old flag gone up to its place, 
and been flung out in the free air over Fort Sumter by 
the heroic hands that held it there so valiantly to the 
last four years ago. I thank God for this. 

If now it be still asked again, as we have all asked, 
Why must the Chief Magistrate of this republic, in this day 
of triumph, fall by the hand of an assassin, and what are 
God's designs in permitting it ? I freely answer, I can- 
not tell; and just because I cannot, therefore the faith I 
have is not in events, but in God. " He giveth not 
account of any of his matters."* It may be that this 
stupendous wrong, as also the inhumanity shown to our 
soldiers in rebel prisons, was permitted to show us and 
the world one more characteristic fruit of this wanton 
rebellion; that in the assassination of such a man, might 
be seen also the Satanic ambition and brutal barbarism, 
not of the rebellion alone, but of that foul system of 
slavery from which it sprang, — one more accursed off- 
shoot from that which itself, root and branch, must needs 
be accursed. 

It may be also that particularly at this time there was 
need of a certain effect to be produced on the public 
mind in the loyal States, which required some such 
astounding development of tlie spirit of the southern 
rebellion. Already we see it working a more entire 
unanimity of sentiment among all loyal people. Like 
the first cannon-shot against Fort Sumter, this atrocity 
has struck the heart of our nationality, and vehemently, 
aroused all patriotic minds with a common impulse of 
indignation against the common foe. A righteous resent- 
ment is kindled over the land. There was need of such 
a sentiment to be somehow kindled, to counteract the 
ascendency of a certain sentimentalism that prevails too 
much in our days. There has been what one writer 
called a "rose water philanthropy," which protested 
against all capital punishment, on the plea of the sacred- 

* Job 33: 13. 



15 

ness of human life in a murderer, tliough losing sight of 
its sacredness in his victim. But how many can be found 
to say that if the Washington assassins can be caught, 
they ought not to die, and what imprisonment for life 
could satisfy justice in their case, and what penalty short 
of that which hands them over at once to God's tribunal? 
Still more widely has there been among loyal people an 
excessive leniency, naturally growing with our prospects 
of success, on the question what ought to be done with 
the authors of this rebellion. We should be unworthy 
of such a President as we have lost if we were not ready 
to receive back the southern people to the fellowship of 
the Union as soon as they will partake of it in good 
faith: but as to their instigators, plotters and leaders r 
God forbid that in any event they be again heard in our 
councils, or allowed the right they have betrayed of a 
vote. God forbid that their chief conspirators should 
ever be suffered ta breathe again the pure air they have- 
polluted; that we should deal more mildly with the arch 
assassins of the nation than we would with the assassin 
of its most honored Head ! It is here that the public 
mind needed to be stiifened and sharpened to a due sense- 
of the enormity of treason, and the damnation it merits 
in deeds as well as Avords. And it may be to this end 
that this last crime has been permitted to thrill with 
horror the universal heart. 

But this w^e know, that whatever lesson we may learn 
from the calamity we now deplore, that lesson it was^ 
designed to teach. And how could we be more start- 
lingly admonished of the uncertainty of all human expec- 
tations, and the necessity laid on us for fixing our faith 
and hope, not in the outward aspect of passing events, 
not in so much as we can see of present promise, but in 
God ? How little do we know what is before us, what 
even " a day may bring forth?" How a single week or 
day may be crowded with lights and shades, with rejoic- 
ings and lamentations ! And how can we dare to lay up 



16 

any trust in man when man himself is so perishable, and 
God is the only Being on whom it can be placed so as 
never to be confounded ? Every nation has reason to 
thank God for its wise and good men in public life, and 
ought to honor them ; but such men die, whether by. 
disease or violence, so that only their memory can be - 
honored, for this end, if for no other, that our depend- 
ence on God may be felt more intensely, and we may 
look to .him accordingly. Thus it was in Israel of old, 
for that people had their chiefs and prophets, but they 
were specially warned against relying on them though 
raised up by God, as well as on foreign alliances, to the 
disparagement of their hope in the God of Israel. 
" Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils." 
" It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence* 
in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put < 
confidence in princes." This terrible war has taught 
us such lessons again and again. This one revolting . 
crime, bereaving us of our tried leader, teaches it to us 
anew. Our country, the Union, human freedom, peace, ^ 
do not depend on man, on Presidents, or Councilors, or, 
Generals, except under God ; and as surely as we are 
on his side, whatever ma}^ take place, He is with us, 
and will fashion and furnish his instruments and agents. 
It is wisdom and piety for nations, as for individuals, to 
solicit and rely on God's care with a faith that stops 
short of nothing but his throne. Let every Christian 
patriot say for himself and for his country, — 

" 1 know not the way I am going, 

But well do I know my Guide ! 
With a child-like trust do I give my hand 

To the mighty Friend by my side : 
And the only thing that I say to Him, 

As He takes it, is, ' Hold it fast, 
Suffer me not to lose my way, 

And lead me home at last'!" 



LB S *12 



